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Wednesday June 13, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday June 13, 2018

Trump says he’ll punish ‘the people of Canada’ because of Trudeau’s news conference

Escalating his attack on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, U.S. President Donald Trump is now pledging to punish “the people of Canada” economically because of the post-G7 news conference in which Trudeau criticized Trump’s tariffs.

“That’s going to cost a lot of money for the people of Canada. He learned. You can’t do that. You can’t do that,” Trump said Tuesday in Singapore after meeting with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.

Trump repeated the vague threat in an interview with ABC.

“I actually like Justin, you know, I think he’s good, I like him, but he shouldn’t have done that. That was a mistake. That’s going to cost him a lot of money,” Trump said.

Canadian leaders responded with restraint. Trudeau briefly addressed the latest barb on his way into Tuesday morning’s cabinet meeting on Parliament Hill.

“Obviously we support the continuing efforts by the president on North Korea. We look forward to looking at the details of the agreement. On his comments, as I said, I’m going to stay focused on defending jobs for Canadians and supporting Canadian interests,” Trudeau said.

This is the first time Trump has threatened to take out his frustration with Trudeau on the Canadian people.

The threat comes as the two countries attempt to negotiate a new North American Free Trade Agreement and as Trudeau both seeks an exemption from Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs and attempts to avoid the automotive tariffs Trump is now floating.

Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland said Tuesday that the government is “prepared for any eventuality” on the possibility of auto tariffs, and that she and Trudeau raised the issue with Trump and other American officials during last weekend’s G7 summit in Quebec. She pointed to Canada’s planned response to the steel and aluminum tariffs — responding duties on a range of U.S. imports worth more than $16 billion — as evidence the government is prepared to be “absolutely resolute” in defending the national interest as trade talks continue.

“From day one, we have said that we expected moments of drama and that we would… keep calm and carry on throughout those moments of drama,” Freeland said. (Source: Toronto Star) 

 

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Saturday August 31, 2013 (Labour Day Weekend)

Saturday August 31, 2013 (Labour Day Weekend)

Is Labour Day still every day for women at home?

“Ask of me anything but doing the laundry.” – Napoleon

True, history suggests the diminutive dictator said to ask of him anything but time, but surely that was code for housework.

Times have changed from the days when men left all the chores to women while they brought home the bacon and conquered nations.

Isn’t it true that the division of labour in the home is no longer so imbalanced?

As a sociologist might put it, the answer is yes and no.

A Statistics Canada study says that between 1998 and 2010 men increased the time they spent on home chores by an hour in a given day, while women’s housework time remained constant.

And yet it found that Canadian women still do at least an hour more chores per day then men.

Moreover, women working full time spend nearly twice as much time caring for their children.

So is the egalitarian glass half-full or half-empty? Or should we measure using a smaller glass?

It bears noting that housework for both genders has decreased overall compared to the 1960s, in part due to such things as affordable home appliances, easier to prepare meals and paid home cleaners.

But chores continue to be mostly handled by women. Friction over the imbalance can doom a couple.

“The division of labour in and of itself can torpedo a marriage,” said Gary Direnfield, a Hamilton social worker and author of Marriage Rescue.

“And it’s not necessarily who is doing the laundry but how we feel about who is doing it. We take that as a statement on the relationship, attach meaning to these chores and fight over what we believe it means.”

Women’s lives have been transformed in the past 50 years, McMaster University sociologist Melanie Heath wrote in an email from Paris where she is conducting research. (Continued… Source: The Hamilton Spectator)

Thursday May 13, 2010

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday May 13, 2010

Canadians’ household debt reaches record levels

Canadians’ debt-to-income ratio now ranks first among 20-advanced countries in the OECD and a new study suggests the recession did little to dampen the country’s enthusiasm for taking on household debt.

The level of household income soared to an average of more than $40,000, according to a report from the Certified General Accountants Association of Canada.

“We were a little bit surprised that throughout the recession we continued to take on debt,” Rock Lefebvre, a vice president for CGA Canada, told CTV News Channel.

Household debt reached an all-time high of $1.41 trillion, according to the report. If spread out evenly among Canadians, every man, woman and child would owe $41,740 — more than two-and-a-half times greater than 20 years ago.

Lefebvre said Canadians used to save up to 20 per cent of their disposable income as recently as the 1980s but that number is now less than one per cent.

“Consumerism has taken hold (in Canada) and people who have access to credit, are taking advantage of it,” he said.

Lefebvre said some debt is necessary to stimulate the economy and fill the government’s coffers.

However, he noted bankruptcies were up significantly during 2009 and governments’ debts are on the rise.

“The question becomes at what point has society taken on too much debt?” Lefebvre asked. (CTV)